Biographical note

Dr Vijai Singh is a Professor and Dean (Research & Innovation) at School of Sciences, Indrashil University, Rajpur, Mehsana, Gujarat, India. He was an Associate Professor in the Department of Biosciences, School of Sciences, Indrashil University, Rajpur, Mehsana, Gujarat, India. Prior this this, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology at the Institute of Advanced Research, Gandhinagar, India and also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnology at the Invertis University, Bareilly, India. Prior to that, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Synthetic Biology Group at the Institute of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Paris, France and School of Energy & Chemical Engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, South Korea. He received his Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Uttar Pradesh Technical University, Lucknow, India with a research focus on the development of molecular and immunoassays for diagnosis of Aeromonas hydrophila. His research interests are focused on building novel biosynthetic pathways for production of medically and industrially important biomolecules. Additionally, his laboratory is working on CRISPR-Cas9 tools for genome editing. He has more than 11 years of research and teaching experience in synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, bioinformatics, microbiology, and industrial microbiology. He has published 100 articles, 70 chapters, 15 books and 3 patents. He serves as an associate editor, editorial board member, and reviewer of several peer-reviewed journals. He is also a member of the Board of Study and Academic Council of Indrashil University and is the Member Secretary of the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBSC) at the same University. Dr. Vimal Chandra Pandey is an applied research scientist of phyto- and phycoremediation at Chandigarh University, India. He obtained his PhD from Dr. RML Avadh University and conducted post-doctoral research at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, India. Dr. Pandey’s research focuses on the remediation and management of polluted sites using ecologically and socio-economically valuable plants and algae. His work focuses strongly on restoring ecosystem services and developing a bio-based economy in support of the UN SDGs. Dr. Pandey is a member of the IUCN commission on Ecosystem Management and the National Academy of Sciences, India. He is the author and editor of several books, including Elsevier’s Algae and Aquatic Macrophytes in Cities, Bioremediation of Pollutants, and more.